I guess this isn’t just about television – in fact it’s mostly about articles I read online – but I liked the idea of drawing myself in front of a TV. I’ve had to make a rule against reading the comment section of a lot of articles I read online because I end up feeling more hurt. The reference to Johnny Weir – ice-skater extraordinaire – came from this article from the GLAAD.org blog a while ago. Reinterpretation is definitely the way to go, makes my article reading a lot happier…
TRANSCRIPT:
Panel 1:
Sam: (A person who is side on to the viewer, who is wearing an olive green hoodie, and is lying down, looking at a TV. Eyebrows are lowered, and mouth is closed, with slightly downturned edges. Arms are bent forward at the shoulders, bent up at the elbows, with palms against cheeks, supporting Sam’s head.)
(There is a squiggly line coming from Sam’s forehead, which ends in a scribble. There is a caption, which reads:) I feel really sad watching the news sometimes.
Panel 2:
Sam: (A person who is facing the viewer, but looking up. Eyebrows are raised slightly, and pushed together, mouth is open, with slightly downturned edges. Both arms are bent up at the shoulder, to shoulder height, with forearms bent towards Sam at the elbows. Hands are open above Sam’s face, palms facing both towards the viewer and up. There are two captions, the top one reads:) With stories of…
(Below the top caption, and surrounding Sam, there are a number of words, which read:) homophobia, threats, gay panic, violence, “yuck”, misrepresentation, abuse, “unnatural”, transphobia, disrespect, “against nature”, discrimination, injustice, “can’t marry”, “can’t serve”, hate crimes, “too gay”, bigotry, lack of access, stereotypes.
(Below these words is another caption, which reads:) I feel bombarded.
Panel 3:
Sam: (A person looking directly at the viewer, with one eyebrow raised, and the other lowered. Mouth is open, with one edge slightly upturned. Both arms are raised horizontally at the shoulder, with one arm bent forward at the elbow, its hand in a fist. There are a pair of parallel lines above this arm’s elbow, indicating movement. The other arm is bent up at the elbow, one finger is pointing at Sam’s head, and the rest of the hand is closed in a fist. There are two speech bubbles, the first reads:) I feel like I need to switch off and change it in my mind.
(The second reads:) “Gay panic” sounds like a disco move…from now on I’m going to reinterpret it like that.
Panel 4:
Sam: (A person wearing a blue, collared shirt and grey trousers, who is facing the viewer, but looking down at a newspaper. Eyebrows are raised slightly, and mouth is open. Both arms are bent up at the shoulders and forward at the elbows, with hands holding a newspaper open. There are two speech bubbles, the first reads:) “Johnny Weir not ‘family friendly’ enough”?
(The second reads:) Must be because he does the “Gay Panic”…
(In Sam’s thought bubble there is an image of Johnny Weir, who is facing the viewer but looking slightly back and to the side. Johnny is wearing a close fitting, long-sleeved, maroon and silver striped shirt, close fitting grey trousers, and black ice skates, which have a single red stripe each. Johnny’s eyebrows are pushed together slightly, mouth is closed, with slightly upturned edges. Both arms are raised at the shoulders, one is sticking straight out, and the other is bent up at the elbow, with its hand bent forward slightly, palm facing the viewer. There are three pairs of elbow shaped lines at Johnny’s hip, shoulder, and hand, indicating movement.)
there’s gay panic defense and tranny panic defense, right? they would be some AWESOME moves. oh johnny weir, you are so damn queer. (i had a whole poem written rhyming with weir and queer, but i feel too creepy to post it.)
Post it! Post it! Post it!!!
yes I do think you need to post it!
Your comics are pretty fuckin’ charming. I like!
Yay thanks 😀
😀 this is basically how my partner and i decided to name our website…the idea that the phrase ‘gender panic’ sounded like something we should appropriate and make cool. love your cartoons btw. 😀
mind if i make a post on my website about your comic actually? i will of course cite you and provide a link to your blog. just let me know. 😀
Haha, yay, I love the idea of taking something that’s supposed to sound bad and making it cool! And, yeh, you totally can link up my comic and do a write up about it. Sounds awesome, your site looks great 🙂
cool, thanks. 😀 i will do that sometime this week. your ‘awesome people’ links are quite neat; i have been reading through a lot of comics this week! maybe one day my site will actually have a comic like it was supposed to, ha.
Johnny Weir is being such a twat atm…
oh no, what’s he doing??
He’s going around saying that people shouldn’t boycott the Olympics for such a “silly reason” as LGBT discrimination, and that he’s not at all worried about being arrested over there because maybe then people will pay attention, because OH NOES A CELEBRITY WAS ARRESTED.
Blergh, this makes me glad I don’t watch the news anymore, even if I live in a pretty progressive country on the gay/lesbian/bi front. :/ Trans* people have it harder, though. It’s really depressing to think about.